So here we are, four days from the biggest election in a generation – and no, that’s not an overstatement. I’m in complete suspense as to what the outcome will be and Im not going to insult your intelligence and make some wild prediction, as these media pundits have been doing for six months. All I will argue is it will be very close; in fact, it may be just as close as it was in 2000. Which brings be to what I’m most worried about. When I go to bed on election night, I want to know who will be president for the next four years. I don’t want lawsuits, and I don’t want contested results. I want a winner, one way or, the other. Do I want my guy to win (it’s Kerry in case you didn’t know), of course, but I want him to win with legitimacy. Bush’s whole presidency lacks this legitimacy because he was elected by the Supreme Court. An overwhelming majority of Americans do not want the antics of 2000 repeated. The 2000 election left people with a bad taste in their mouths, and for good reason. Thousands of African-American voters in Florida were wrongfully purged from the voting rolls. But even those who did vote got hosed. How else can you explain the spike in support for radical conservative Pat Buchanan from 80 year-old Jewish life long Democrats? A majority of Floridians intended to vote for Al Gore last Election Day and the fact that he isn’t president still bothers me. If Democrats are reluctant to go to the polls, they just need to think back to the debacle four years ago; that should be enough for them to high-tail it to the voting booths in droves. The turnout in this election will be record breaking. Not in a long time has the American public become so interested in its presidential election. We are a nation divided; yet at the same time, we all agree on a lot of key principles. All Americans want to be safe from terrorism. All Americans want to be able to make ends meet. All Americans want civil rights for everybody (I hope). Our political system is what divides us. Both parties are passionate about their platforms and push their ideas strenuously on the voting public. Voters certainly have two clear and distinct choices in this election, and anybody who says there’s no difference between Bush and Kerry hasn’t been paying attention to this race. Since February, I’ve berated President Bush, and for good reason. You’d think if Bush was just elected President by his father’s friends on the Supreme Court and lost the popular vote, he might want to shelve his radical right wing agenda. Instead, Bush plowed ahead with the most conservative administration in American history. His appointment of John Ashcroft – a man who said that America’s only king was Jesus Christ – was baffling considering Bush campaigned as a compassionate conservative. George Bush is the perfect candidate if you’re a conservative extremist. Unfortunately for him, America is not deeply conservative nation; so, for Bush to get his agenda through, he lies to us. He tells us that his tax cuts help everybody when, in fact, they help a privileged few. He tells us that Saddam Hussein was an imminent threat on flimsy intelligence at best. He says that he’s looking after working class Americans when he’s really giving corporations tax breaks. So like I said, vote Bush if you think America should: invade sovereign nations on faulty intelligence, eliminate the middle class and provide tax breaks for billion dollar companies. The Bush Administration is a failure beyond anyone’s wildest dreams, and its re-election would he horrible for the future of the United States John Kerry, on the other hand, provides us with a reasonable alternative and an end to these nightmarish four years. He is the most capable person to lead this nation in uncertain times. His reputation as a thoughtful politician would be a refreshing change from the “with us or against us” Bush mentality. Do we really want another four years of this right wing wacko in the White House? I sure hope not.